What can past bottlenecks and imagined technologies tell us about the future of AI?
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Ransomware Negotiator Gets 70 Months in Prison for Aiding BlackCat Attacks
A 41-year-old former ransomware negotiator has been sentenced to nearly six years (i.e., 70 months) in prison in the U.S. for their role in conspiring with the now-defunct BlackCat ransomware operators to extort multiple victims and working with two other cybersecurity professionals to target additional victims in 2023.
In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors described Martino as a “double agent working to maximize the harm to his clients and the financial gain to cybercriminals who paid him a part of the ransom.”
Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, pleaded guilty to one-count information charging him with conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce through extortion back in April. The defendant worked as a negotiator on behalf of five different ransomware victims, while providing BlackCat attackers with confidential information regarding their negotiating position and strategy without their knowledge or permission.
Microsoft expects more Windows security updates from AI-discovered flaws
Microsoft says Windows users should expect to see an increase in security updates as the company increasingly relies on artificial intelligence to discover vulnerabilities in its codebase.
In a blog post published today, Microsoft said advances in AI have significantly accelerated vulnerability discovery, allowing engineers to identify more security issues before they can be exploited in zero-day attacks.
“The pace of vulnerability discovery is changing with advances in AI making it possible to find more issues, faster, across more code, with new mechanisms that can accelerate both discovery and analysis,” Microsoft said.